What’s the difference between sales management in a small business and a corporate?

Business owners of small businesses are often responsible for the sales and marketing responsibilities of that business as they go through the initial stages of development.

This means when the sales managers (who usually are the business owners) are networking, they take a vested interest in developing a robust network of people that will help them to be successful.

This gives them an advantage… they are farmers… they nurture relationships and grow their business through leveraging their networks.

In a corporate environment, the sales manager is a little bit different because the sales manager doesn't own the business and has a different measurement of success.

Plus, we often hire, train, and compensate them to be hunters.

Are you a senior manager (Director or C-Level) in a corporate? You need the sales managers and the marketing managers (indeed all the employees) of the organisation feel a responsibility, a desire even, to nurture robust relationships and networks.

Yes, they need to learn to plant seeds and farm.

Why? Because when developed correctly, strong networks will enable them to lift up your brand and increase the profitability of the company through more leads, better qualified introductions, and improved close ratios. Evidence suggests there’s more profitability and customer lifetime value in them thar hills, too.

How does Strategic Networking affect this?

Strategic networking is a mindset. It enables people to think about who they are, what they want, and who else might be participating in the journey of their clients.

It’s longer term thinking. In today’s corporate world it is something that could make a big difference in retention, keeping intellectual property in house, and improving results.

If your company’s values are human centred, relationship-oriented, and/or referral dependent, then your sales team better be filled with farmers.

But it's not just sales... your whole company networks.

Expose employees across your business to a strategic model and framework and they will be able be able to introduce your salespeople to the right people that will help them be more productive effective and successful.

Farming works.

Find out more about strategic networking on www.strategicnetworking.com.